


lead me into the light

by lestered (lgbtrobed)



Series: different DNA [2]
Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, M/M, alien!phil
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-10
Updated: 2020-09-10
Packaged: 2021-03-07 03:07:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26389906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lgbtrobed/pseuds/lestered
Summary: Dan finds out that his suspicions are true: there’s more to Phil than meets the eye... just not at all in the way that he expected.
Relationships: Dan Howell/Phil Lester
Series: different DNA [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1757338
Comments: 12
Kudos: 59





	lead me into the light

“Isn’t it a bit bleak living in the basement?” Dan asks, glancing around the windowless studio. The question has been on his mind ever since he’d first spent the night at Phil’s a couple weeks ago. 

Lack of windows aside, it’s a nice place. It’s exactly the same layout as his apartment upstairs—one big square room, kitchen setup in one corner and a small, private bathroom in another. He’s not sure why he’d expected anything different. 

Phil shrugs and hands him a glass of wine. “It’s alright. I’m not exactly built to handle a lot of sun, if you couldn’t tell.” Dan watches him pour his own glass before setting the bottle back in the refrigerator. He wrinkles his nose. “Cold red wine. You have absolutely no taste.”

“But here you are, drinking it,” Phil points out. Dan watches him take a sip and then tilts his head when Phil moves in closer, angling his cheek for Phil to kiss as he takes his own drink. 

“You can drop the pretentiousness around me, you know,” he murmurs, free hand resting on Dan’s hip as his lips travel from his cheek down to his neck. “I promise not to tell anyone that you’re not such a snooty bitch after all.”

Dan kicks lightly at Phil’s foot. “I’ve been here ten minutes and you’re already attacking my character flaws and trying to get into my pants?”

“Making up for lost time?” Phil tries. “Haven’t seen you all week.”

 _Whose fault is that?_ Dan feels like asking, but he holds back. “Well, one of us has been very busy with a big, secret space project,” he says instead. “You may be shocked to hear that it wasn’t me.” 

Phil’s cheeks are flushed when he pulls back and takes another, longer drink from his glass before setting it down completely. Dan does the same and lets Phil take his hand, lace their fingers together and tug him gently across the room.

*

The word _afterglow_ never meant anything to him until meeting Phil. In fact, he’d thought it was a very stupid term. There was never anything glowy about the sex being over; just sweaty and sore and depressing.

And then there was Phil.

The afterglow is almost as good as the sex. It’s a safe, warm, joyful simmering deep in his chest. It’s comfortably drowsy but fighting the instinct to slip into unconsciousness, because he doesn’t want to fall asleep while Phil’s still pressing kisses into his skin.

“Does your family call you Bear because you’re so warm all the time?” Phil asks in the midst of peppering slow, soft kisses onto Dan’s shoulder, fingers curled loosely around his waist. Dan turns his head to the side, reaching out to brush Phil’s hair off his forehead. His eyes are as bright and pretty as ever.

“Did I tell you that?” Dan asks quietly. He ponders it when Phil leans down to kiss him, eyes fluttering back open when their lips part. “I don’t remember telling you that.”

“You mentioned it once,” Phil shrugs a little. “I think you were mostly asleep.”

Dan hums. “You’re a really good listener.”

“Thanks,” Phil smiles. “But you didn’t answer the question.”

He takes a moment to think. “Grizzly bears were my favourite animal when I was a kid. I used to crawl around pretending to be one.”

“Did you know when most mammals hibernate, their body temperature drops around 10 degrees and it slows their metabolism down by half?” Phil asks, his voice thoughtful and soft. “But bears can slow their metabolism down 75 percent, and they only need a 5 degree drop.”

Dan stares at him and then blinks, once. Phil’s cheeks turn pink. 

“Just… thought you might like to know,” he mumbles, breaking eye contact and pretending to brush something off the pillow behind Dan’s head. “You know. An animal fact.”

Dan holds the facade just a few seconds longer before splitting his face into a grin, reaching out to cup Phil’s cheeks and pull him in. “You’re so fucking cute,” he whispers against his lips before kissing him sweetly. Phil makes a slightly indignant noise, but kisses back anyway. 

“You can’t do that,” he complains when Dan finally lets him go. “One of these days you’re gonna decide I’m actually too weird for you and I’m not gonna be prepared unless we establish some kind of threshold.”

Dan frowns. “Why? Your weirdness is the best thing. Everyone else is boring.” He brushes his thumbs lightly over Phil’s cheekbones. “Have a little faith in me.”

Phil’s eyes soften, his furrowed brow relaxing into an expression of happiness and relief instead.

Dan’s heart flips over in his chest.

*

It’s completely dark in Phil’s apartment when Dan’s alarm goes off in the morning, no windows meaning that the only light comes from his iPhone screen as he unlocks it to shut it up. He feels Phil shift behind him, voice low and sleepy as he tightens his arm around Dan’s waist to spoon him closer.

“Don’t go.”

He huffs out a laugh but sighs and pushes his ass back nonetheless when Phil kisses the back of his neck, then his shoulder, then right under his jaw. “I have to,” he reminds him. “But now you know how I feel.”

“Hm,” Phil sighs. “I don’t like it.”

“Keep that in mind next time you’re abandoning me before it’s even light out.”

Phil rolls onto his back, grumbling something unintelligible after Dan wiggles his way out of the embrace.

“I’ll be back, remember,” Dan says, bending down over him for a kiss. “You sure you’re okay with me taking a key?”

Phil hums affirmatively.

“M’kay,” Dan smiles, and finally drags himself out of bed all the way. 

*

He does his best not to take too long in the shower, although that’s where he seems to always find himself stalling in the morning. He sighs, standing under the warm spray and stretching his sore, tired body out as best he can in the small space. Mornings after spending the night with Phil are always slow and hazy and not conducive to getting anything done, when all he wants to do is be back in bed. 

Granted, most mornings are like that. But Phil makes the bed extra appealing. 

He dresses and makes his way out of the apartment without much fuss, and without waking Phil back up, despite the darkness. That’s just because there’s nothing to get in his way; Phil’s apartment is mostly empty. He really hadn’t been exaggerating about not having unpacked. It’s mainly boxes, some partially opened, but most sealed shut. All that’s truly set up is the kitchen and the bed in the corner, and even that’s just a mattress on the floor at the moment. 

But it’s a real apartment in Dan’s building, where Phil really lives. That had helped ease most of the paranoia he’d been starting to fall into, though that one conversation still rings occasionally in his mind.

_I like you so much and I don’t like keeping secrets and I’d never do anything to hurt you. I just really, really need you to trust me._

_Dan. Please, please can you trust me?_

In his head, his own voice echoes the answer right back.

_Okay._

He makes it to the shop with a couple minutes to spare, not that being on time matters. PJ doesn’t have a problem cutting him some slack as long as he comes bearing Starbucks. 

“Right,” he says as he strolls up to the counter and sets their cups down. “Grande cappuccino for you,” he slides the slightly larger cup over to Sophie, “And tall matcha green tea latte, for some reason,” he slides the smaller cup over to PJ, “For you. You’re welcome.”

They both hum their thanks as Dan sips his macchiato. 

“So, Dan,” Sophie says, “you’re glowing. You and Phil have another sleepover at your place last night?”

“His place, actually,” he replies. “And we didn’t get too much sleeping done, to be honest.”

“Tell him I desperately need the sequel to that graphic novel he loaned me,” PJ interrupts before Sophie can catch the bone he’s just thrown at her. 

Dan looks at him skeptically. “You can’t just find it yourself?”

“I tried!” PJ insists. “I swear to god. I searched for the first book and it’s like it doesn’t exist. I got no results when I searched the title, the author is anonymous, there’s no ISBN, no barcode, no publication information, nothing. And it ends on the most _devastating_ cliffhanger.”

Dan raises an eyebrow at him and takes another sip of his drink. “Right. I’ll let him know.”

“Oh, my 8 o’clock’s here,” Sophie says as the front door chimes and a young boy walks through, struggling with a cello case that’s comically too large for him. She hurries over to help him out, waving at his mum through the window before whisking him off to one of the lesson rooms.

“So,” PJ says once it’s just the two of them. “Have you and Phil battled it out yet over who gets to have me as best man at your wedding?”

“Uh, I was thinking we wouldn’t have to battle it out,” Dan says easily, “since you and I have been friends for almost three years while you and Phil have been friends for almost… let me think. Oh yeah, three weeks.”

PJ sighs a little. “Yeah, but Phil gets me. He’s so fucking _weird,_ he makes you and Soph look like normies. I love him.”

Dan’s jaw drops in indignation, and PJ laughs, clearly satisfied with himself. He shuts his mouth and rolls his eyes.

“Someone did a 180 real quick,” Dan mumbles, remembering PJ’s wary impression of Phil before they’d actually met.

“Yeah, yeah,” PJ waves his hand around, “You were right. Cherish it, it doesn’t happen very often.”

Dan kicks his shoe.

“You’re getting ahead of yourself, anyway,” he says. “You know we’ve only been together for two months, right? We haven’t even approached the whole L-word thing. You literally just declared your love for him before I could.”

“You’re obviously thinking it,” PJ offers. “And you’re so enamoured with each other, it’s ridiculous. It’s actually annoying to be in the same room as you two sometimes, you know.”

 _Alright,_ he thinks as he sets his backpack down and takes his place behind the register. He won’t pretend that PJ’s not a little bit right about that.

*

“You did a really great job today, Bryce,” Dan says, placing a sticker on his weekly practice chart before sliding it into his music folder and handing it off to his dad. “Practice _Clair de Lune_ for next week, alright?”

“Thanks, Dan,” his student grins at him, bouncing happily on his toes. It kind of melts his heart to see. It always does, any time he sees a kid as passionate about something as Bryce is with the piano. A lot of his students are like that: little kids, big dreams. Listening to them is the best part of his job.

“See you next week, Dan,” Bryce’s dad smiles at him as well. Bryce waves to him and clings to his dad’s hand as they walk out of the shop, chattering the entire way. The door swings shut after they leave and then it’s empty and quiet again, leaving Dan to head back over to the front counter. He’s got about an hour before his next and final lesson of the day, but he’s not in the mood to go sort guitar strings just yet.

“Hey,” PJ says as he approaches, “Emily’s mum just called. She’s got the flu so she’s not gonna make it to her lesson today. You can go home early, if you want.”

“Oh,” Dan frowns, “That’s too bad.”

He means it, too. It’s never nice to hear that one of his kids isn’t well, but he’d also be lying if he said the idea of getting a couple extra weekend hours in with Phil wasn’t alluring. So he’s out the door in what might just be record time, with a mental note to call Emily’s mum before her next lesson to check up.

On the way back to their building, he takes a detour to stop in at the cafe around the corner, the one with the overpriced coffee and chocolate croissants always baked to perfection. A couple minutes later he’s back en route, baked goods zipped carefully up in his backpack and coffees in hand. 

He hasn’t gotten to surprise Phil yet in their relationship. It’s always been Phil surprising him so far: bringing him lunch at work, planning date nights, leaving little bouquets of white roses outside his apartment. Coming home early with coffee and pastries is a start for him, at least. Dan’s never really cared about anyone enough to surprise them before. 

He does his best to stay quiet as he unlocks Phil’s door and slips inside, exhaling softly when he hears the shower running behind the closed bathroom door. Perfect. He heads over to the kitchen first, setting their coffees and pastry bags on the counter and then making his way over to the bathroom. The opportunity to turn this surprise sexy isn’t lost on him.

He carefully opens the door. The bathroom is steamy and nice-smelling, the scent of those fancy body washes Phil indulges in wafting through the air. He tilts his head when he hears Phil’s voice echoing in the shower, singing what he eventually recognises as My Heart Will Go On. 

Damn. Just when Dan thinks he can’t get any cuter. 

“Phil?” He calls, kicking his shoes off and tossing them outside the door and then unbuckling his belt. “I’m back!”

Phil’s singing stops abruptly. Dan furrows his eyebrows and takes a couple steps closer to the shower. “Phil?”

“Dan,” Phil speaks up softly. Dan barely even hears him until the water turns off. “I thought… I thought you weren’t gonna be here for a few more hours.”

Is that a bit of a tremor in Phil’s voice? Dan takes another step forward, then squints. He can’t tell if his eyes are playing tricks on him, but it looks almost like there’s a faint blue glow showing through the shower curtain. “My last lesson got canceled,” he says slowly, “so I got off early. Thought I’d surprise you.”

Phil doesn’t respond. 

“Is everything okay?” Dan asks after an awkward moment of silence.

“Yeah,” Phil’s voice rings out, just slightly too high pitched. “Just don’t come any closer, okay? Please? Just… go outside, and I’ll be right there?”

“Phil, what are you on about?” He asks, since this makes no sense whatsoever. There’s nothing behind that shower curtain that Dan hasn’t already seen. He shakes his head to himself and paces forward the rest of the way, reaching out and pulling the shower curtain open. “Are you sick? Seriously, why are you being so-”

He freezes. Figuratively, but… mostly literally, too. He feels himself go rigid, fear stabbing at his chest like an icy dagger. His jaw drops and something in him feels sicker than he ever has.

Because whatever it is he’s looking at, whatever’s standing in the shower in front of him, isn’t Phil.

Everything slows down for a moment. He blinks hard, over and over, as if that’ll erase this… this _thing_ that is most certainly not his boyfriend. 

It’s about the same height as Phil. Same proportions too, for the most part. But it’s… blue. 

Blue and shimmery in a way that’s almost iridescent. Its hair, wet from the shower, is shoulder length and black, with veins of white light glowing under its skin: over its collarbones and down to its hips, down the front of its legs and over its feet, over its shoulders and down its arms onto its hands and probably the same on the back. Its ears look slightly elven.

The only thing that’s the same is the eyes. Its eyes are the same size and shape as Phil’s, and the same shade of mesmerising blue.

“Dan, I can-” the thing says in Phil’s voice, at the exact same time that Dan screams.

His brain, unable to process anything besides the profound fear that’s coursing through him at the moment, lets his body run on autopilot. He almost trips over himself turning around and starting to run for the door. 

“Dan, wait!” Phil’s voice calls out to him. In his periphery he sees a flash of white light that’s almost blinding. He squeezes his eyes shut and just as he does, he manages to trip over his own feet. Cursing himself, he stumbles to get up. It takes just a second too long as then there’s a hand grabbing his arm and spinning him around. 

“Let me go!” He yells, trying in vain to yank his arm away.

“Dan, please, let me explain,” Phil’s voice pleads with him. That’s when Dan makes the mistake of looking up.

That thing, whatever it is, is gone, and it’s Phil that’s standing in front of him— looking exactly the same as he always does, except for his eyes. His eyes are glowing a sharp, electric blue that makes Dan’s knees buckle when he looks into them. 

Phil reaches out to catch him.

“It’s okay,” he whispers shakily as Dan’s body starts to go limp. His eyes glow brighter, flashing at him in a way that’s almost hypnotic. In spite of what he wants, he feels himself collapse into Phil’s arms, his vision starting to go black around the edges.

“It’s okay, Dan,” Phil whispers again. Dan’s head drops down onto his shoulder and Phil’s arms lock around him securely. “It’s gonna be okay.”

He whines as his vision goes fuzzier and darker, too weak and confused to fight his way out of Phil’s embrace. The last thing he hears before he goes completely unconscious is Phil’s voice again, soft and shaky and choked-up.

“I’m sorry.”

*

Consciousness comes back to him in waves. First he wakes to just a loud ringing in his ears. It lasts only a moment before he slips away again. When he gets his next wave, the ringing is duller, but he still can’t open his eyes. He tries, but it’s as if his eyelids are suddenly made of lead. He manages a tiny groan before he goes back out. 

The third time, he knows where he is, kind of. He knows he’s on a bed, a bed that feels familiar and looks familiar too, when he gets his eyes to finally open. His vision is unfocused and his throat feels like parchment. He feels almost as if he’s underneath a weighted blanket, even though he can tell there’s nothing covering him. He feels calm and subdued, but in a way that’s slightly forced. He can’t quite make sense of it until he hears a voice. 

“Hey, you’re awake,” the voice says. A hand comes to rest on the back of his head. “Take it easy. You’re safe, I promise.”

Of course he’s safe, he thinks. Why wouldn’t he be safe?

Then it all comes flooding back. 

Phil.

His throat is too dry to scream again as he sits up, so fast that a sharp, burning pain shoots right through the center of his brain as he does. He wobbles a little, trying not to fall back. Then Phil’s hands are on his shoulders, steadying him. Dan braces himself before looking over.

He supposes part of him is expecting to see That Thing in Phil’s place again, but he doesn’t. It’s just Phil, all big blue eyes and pouty lips and soft skin and undeniably human… or so he’d thought. He clenches his fists, digging his nails into the palms of his hands just to feel some semblance of control. Phil looks so sweet, like he always does. How is Dan not supposed to just melt over him?

By making note of the fear still pumping its way through his veins, that’s how.

“What,” he manages, backing himself into the corner, “the hell are you?”

Phil breaks eye contact.

“Yeah,” he sighs, twiddling his thumbs and glancing around nervously before looking at Dan again. “Um. There’s something you should probably know.”

*

It does make sense when Phil explains it, as much as something like this can make sense. All Dan knows is that under different circumstances, he’d be scoffing his little heart out. But having gone through what he just did, he’ll believe almost anything. 

“So, an alien,” Dan says flatly a while later. He’s sitting on Phil’s mattress, holding his knees to his chest while Phil sits a respectable distance away. “Like, from another planet.”

“It’s more like a station,” Phil says thoughtfully. “A base. We haven’t occupied our home planet for ages. And, well... we don’t think of ourselves as aliens, obviously.”

Dan just stares at him. Phil clears his throat and looks down awkwardly. “By your definition, though… yes. An alien from outer space.”

It’s dead silent for another long moment before Dan speaks again. 

“You told me you were from Manchester.” 

“That wasn’t a total lie actually,” Phil offers. “That’s where my host family lives.”

“Host family?” Dan laughs, once. “What are you, a foreign exchange student?”

“Honestly, something like that,” Phil says under his breath. Dan ignores that for the time being. 

It’s the throbbing pain in his head that drives him to ask the next question, after stewing a little bit longer. 

“What did you do to me?”

Phil draws in a shaky breath. “It’s called a wipeout,” he says quietly. “We call it that because we use it to wipe people’s memories while they’re unconscious. I didn’t do that to you, though. That’s why you’re in so much pain.”

He moves in a little closer. Dan does too, on instinct. 

“Can I help?” Phil asks. He holds his hands up tentatively, as if trying to prove that he’s unarmed. Well, he might not be carrying a weapon, but Dan gets the sense that there’s something much more dangerous inside him, anyway.

“It’ll just make your head stop hurting,” he adds. “Nothing else. I promise.”

Dan sighs and nods. He’s in so much pain, now that Phil’s pointed it out, that it’s nearly all he can think about. 

“Okay,” Phil whispers. He moves in close and reaches out, placing his thumbs lightly on Dan’s temples to start. 

It begins as a cool sort of tingling, starting at his temples and moving across his hairline, over his forehead, down his jaw. The rest of Phil’s fingers come to rest gently on the back of his head, sliding through his hair and applying a firm bit of pressure. It happens all at once then: the pain is sucked out of his head like a vacuum and he immediately feels so much lighter, almost as if he’s floating. It’s a sensation so impossibly good that he actually moans, mouth dropping open and every bone in his body turning to jelly. 

“That’s it,” Phil says gently. He slides his thumbs over to the center of Dan’s forehead, the rest of his fingers still lightly cradling the back of his skull, and then the warmest, most perfect sensation washes through his head. “Good.”

Dan flutters his eyes open as the warmth fades and everything starts to return to normal. Phil’s hands slide down to cup his cheeks and then he leans forward, pressing a soft kiss to Dan’s forehead. It makes him smile in spite of everything.

“Wow,” he whispers once Phil pulls back. “That was amazing.” He runs his own hands through his hair, reorienting himself to the impossible reality of it all. Then he looks at Phil. “Was the kiss part of the healing?” He asks. 

Phil looks bashful. “No,” he replies lightly. His eyes are so deep and emotional and beautiful. “That was just because I love you.”

Of course that knocks the wind out of him more than anything else. He moves hesitantly forward, bit by bit until he’s in Phil’s lap. Phil holds him and looks up at him in awe. 

“I love you too,” Dan whispers. He wraps his arms around Phil’s shoulders and kisses him. Phil makes a small noise of surprise, which quickly turns to a soft moan as he kisses back. 

“You do?” Phil asks when their lips part. It sounds so cautiously hopeful; he’s just the most adorable thing. He’s also a terrifying extraterrestrial monster.

And Dan knows that he’s truly, fully, desperately in love with him. 

“Fuck,” Dan sighs, resting his forehead against Phil’s and closing his eyes again. “Yeah. I really do.”

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!
> 
> [reblogs](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/view/lestered/628876067113959424) are highly appreciated ❤️
> 
> come talk to me on [tumblr!](https://lestered.tumblr.com/ask)


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